Communications devices such as cellular telephones, mobile communication devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, and the like are becoming more prevalent as technology advances and makes these devices more powerful and more affordable. These devices are also being constructed with increasing capabilities and can now perform functions that have in the past been performed by dedicated special function communications devices. For instance, a common mobile communications device today may have computing capabilities that allow the device to process multimedia content, the ability to communicate with data networks such as the Internet, a display than can render high quality still images and video, audio capabilities that allow the device to play music and video soundtracks, as well as the ability to place and receive traditional mobile telephone calls and text messages.
The expanding capabilities of mobile communications devices have allowed the improvement and enhancement of more traditional technologies. For example, voicemail has traditionally been an audio-only feature that requires a telephone connection to a voicemail server. Traditionally, a user would receive a message waiting notification that a voicemail is available, and the user would then have to dial into a voicemail server to listen to the message. Thanks to technological advances, visual voicemail is available on many mobile communications devices. Visual voicemail presents a visual interface to a user's voicemail box and allows the user to view attributes of voicemail and manipulate voicemail in various ways that were previously not possible. A user may delete or save voicemail through the visual interface without having to place a telephone call to a voicemail server. A user may also be able to see who the voicemail is from, when it was sent or received, and other characteristic of the voicemail without actually placing a telephone call to a voicemail server. Visual voicemail systems may also provide a means for a sender to include multimedia content to accompany a voice message or to be provided instead of a voice message.
Current visual voicemail services are typically implemented with a single device associated with a single user or user account. In current implementations, visual voicemail data is only transmitted to a single user device and only that device is able to transmit user data to the voicemail system. This provides some measure of security because voicemail access is not available from more than one device. However, current implementations prevent users from accessing visual voicemail systems and data from more than one device, which reduces the convenience of a voicemail system. If the option were presented to a user to access visual voicemail systems and data from multiple devices, current visual voicemail implementations do not provide the security that would be needed to ensure the privacy of voicemail data that may be accessed from several devices, some of which may be used by users other than the voicemail account owner. What are needed in the art are systems, devices, and methods of protecting user privacy in visual voicemail systems.